Ted Kaczynski

Terrorist

Born: 22 May 1942

Birthplace: Evergreen Park, Illinois

Best known as: The so-called Unabomber

Name at birth: Theodore John Kaczynski

Ted Kaczynksi was sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for being the "Unabomber," an anti-technology terrorist who in 1978 began a series of sporadic bombings across the United States. The first bomb was found in May of 1978 at the University of Chicago: a package sent through the mail to a professor, it exploded and injured a university police officer. Over time the bombs became more sophisticated and fatal, but there was still little known about the bomber's identity besides a widely-circulated FBI sketch of a man wearing sunglasses and a hood. In 1994 the Unabomber began demanding publication of his "Manifesto," a 35,000-word document railing against technology. The document's eventual publication by the mainstream media led David Kaczynski to suspect that his brother Ted was the Unabomber, and he turned him in. Ted Kaczynski was arrested in April of 1996, surprised by federal agents at his one-room shack outside of Lincoln, Montana, where he had been living as a recluse since 1971. After a few years of legal wrangling, Ted Kaczynski pled guilty to his crimes in 1998 and was sentenced to life in prison. He continues to serve his time at a "supermax" federal prison in Florence, Colorado.

Extra credit:

After Ted Kaczynski delivered his first bombs, police nicknamed him the “Junkyard Bomber” because of his crude, hand-fashioned bombs. After 1980 he was dubbed the “Unabomber,” a reference to what seemed to be his primary targets: leading figures at universities and airlines… Anders Breivik, the extremist who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011, issued his own manifesto which included many phrases borrowed from Kaczynski’s writings.